Hand brake. Necessity or hindrance?

The handbrake was originally designed to prevent accidental movement of the car in the parking lot. The system is arranged in such a way that when the lever is lifted, the cables clamp the pads and the vehicle remains stationary. Although experienced drivers prefer not to use a hand-held device, especially in winter. The brake is the activation of the gear with the engine switched off, this not only increases the service life of the handbrake, but also avoids the freezing of brake pads in winter.

About repair of a manual brake usually remember before passage of technical survey. There are several most likely causes of breakdown, which you can diagnose yourself:

1) After removal from the handbrake, the rear wheels still do not rotate for a while, and after a short trip everything returns to normal. This is due to the socking of the rope bar cables, which leads to a permanent clamping of the disc brake pads . To fix this problem, only the replacement will help.

2) The handbrake does not work at all. Most likely, the reason is that the cable has developed its resource and with the next effort just burst.

3) It is too high to raise the lever so that the machine remains in place. Here, most likely, there was wear of the pads, which led to an increase in clearance between the shoe and the brake disc. Replace and, if the result has not changed much, pull the cables.

Ironically, a broken handbrake is quite common among those car owners who do not use them practically or use them for other purposes. For example, now there is a huge fashion for the so-called drifting (controlled drift), where novice drivers, after watching the movie, begin to make drifts, not at all equipping their cars, which can lead to disastrous consequences. For such entertainment a hydraulic handbrake is required. Its design is slightly different from the standard, and it is installed in addition, rather than in place of the factory. Such a brake will not keep your car on the slope and especially will not save in winter, but it will help to retain the remaining parking brake parts for their further purposeful use.

This, it would seem, trifle pretty much facilitates the life of many drivers, and sometimes saves it. There are often cases when only a hand brake saved from imminent death due to the failure of the main braking system. That's why many professional drivers recommend monitoring the serviceability of this mechanism.

It is worth saying that if you are in the above situation, then in no case can not sharply pull the handbrake. Such a reaction will not only not save you, but can aggravate an already troubled moment, sending you into a skid. If you feel that when the brake pedal is depressed, the car does not stop moving, then it is safe and quiet to switch on the lowered gears with a smooth lifting of the hand lever upwards. The gear shift will allow you to brake the engine, and the gradual use of the parking brake will protect you from skidding and accelerate the braking process.